


seeing devils

by sinequanon



Series: tiny bleach [7]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Soulmates, Time Loop, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 08:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15837339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinequanon/pseuds/sinequanon
Summary: When Tousen Kaname is given the chance to right the wrongs of the Winter War, he takes it. Unfortunately, sometimes when you fight fate, fate fights back.





	seeing devils

**Author's Note:**

> One of the lines in Bleach that always stuck with me was Tousen’s comment that he sided with Aizen because it was the path of least bloodshed. That made me wonder, if Tousen saw war with his friends and colleagues as the path of _least_ bloodshed, what other options did he see?
> 
> I’ve had this idea (and the ones for the two stories after this) for some time, but I couldn’t quite get them to work—until people started posting for UraIchi Week. I’ve used a couple of their prompts: time/dimension travel & soulmates, to help me finally finish this fic.
> 
> A couple of warnings: this story is from Tousen’s POV. He talks about things like blood and rot, though not graphically. Beware if that sort of thing bothers you. Also, he is against the relationship between Ichigo and Urahara, but not because of gender. I think I fixed the parts that seemed fuzzy on that, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold. —William Shakespeare’s _A_ _Midsummer Night's Dream_

<> <> <> <> 

Tousen Kaname had always been a man of vision, his lack of sight notwithstanding. He knew how to see things as they were, rather than as he wanted them to be, and he knew very well what laid behind the Gotei 13’s veneer of reverence and responsibility.

Decadence. Degradation. Desolation.

The organization had long been wasting away under the bleeding of a thousand cuts, each unremarkable on their own, but left to fester under those who were unwilling or unable to lance the wounds. Already the fever had set in—simmering under the surface—with those who were most responsible for the sickness content to let rot take hold.

As a man of justice, it offended Kaname on a level he could only endure for so long. Eventually, something needed to be done. Aizen-sama’s path—though painful—would ensure that those wounds crippling Soul Society would finally heal.

(Even now, as the scales tipped in unexpected directions, his beliefs remained the same. Even now, after so many cycles, he would still make the same choice.)

The first attempt to cleanse the Gotei 13 had gone remarkably well—the escape to Hueco Mundo, the creation of the Espada, Aizen-sama’s fusion with the hogyoku—all had proceeded as planned. And then Kurosaki Ichigo had exceeded all expectations and the rot grew like a cancer and just as Tousen was about to fall—

He was given another chance to make things right.

Again and again, he fought with the Gotei 13, only to fall in the eleventh hour. He changed small things that led to catastrophic differences; he altered major moments that ultimately changed nothing. Every decision he made had potentially unforeseen consequences and left him no better off than before.

(Choosing _not_ to take Orihime Inoue was a boon to Aizen-sama's cause; yet the execution of the traitorous sixth Espada somehow led to annihilation.)

Still, he pressed forward.

He discovered that some changes resonated from cycle to cycle, particularly in regards to the ryoka. Killing one of the humans only seemed to strengthen the group as a whole in the next cycle; separating one from the rest drew them together even more quickly, like magnets, and bound them together even more tightly. Cutting them off from the Spirit World only made them more creative.

And then, something curious began to happen.

The invisible bonds that seemed to hold the ryoka together somehow expanded to include all of the human world’s traitors.

If one of the Visored lost an arm in one cycle, someone would always provide cover from that side in the next; if Urahara’s shop was destroyed in a fiery explosion, it was somehow more fire resistant the next time.

(Tousen knew that the wounds of Soul Society were pervasive, but the steady spread of poison through the traitors to the humans surprised even him.)

Which led to an even more troubling development: a relationship between Kurosaki Ichigo and Urahara Kisuke.

Most of the Gotei 13 were blind to it, Tousen was sure, but the captain had witnessed the corruption as it unfolded. Kurosaki Ichigo, proud child that he was, fell easily into Urahara's snares, and dragged his friends down with him. Each time Tousen battled one, the other sped a second more quickly to the other's aid; they fought together more smoothly; their reiatsu touched a little more freely.

Somehow, Urahara Kisuke had pulled Kurosaki Ichigo down into the muck and bile that had already tainted so many of his comrades’ lives, and Tousen could do nothing but watch.

(He had tried once, early on, to save the young man from them all; it was a failure he regretted more than most. How brilliantly might have Kurosaki Ichigo shined had he been given the proper direction?)

It was only after dozens of cycles, of watching the two grow ever closer, that Tousen realized the reason behind the unlikely attraction: a premature soulbond. The entire situation was perverse; a sacred bond that should have taken a century to build, cobbled together as time reset itself again and again. More than a century, made up of insignificant, repeating years, but enough to draw them together.

(The bond, in many ways, offended him even more than Soul Society’s willingness to drown in its own blood; how unfortunate that the path to justice would inadvertently tie a child to a madman.)

<> <>

It wasn't fair.

He had not prevailed against Komamura, he had not sacrificed Hisagi only to fail now--and yet the blood dripping in his eyes and down his neck suggested otherwise.

How could fate so cruelly grant him victory one moment, only to deny him satisfaction the next?

Tousen can only watch as Kurosaki and Urahara fight Aizen-sama together with an ease borne of centuries of battle and companionship--and that was when the justice preacher realized his mistake.

(Much like the bond between soulmates, some things are forever meant to be.)

On the battlefield, Aizen slashed, Kurosaki parried; Aizen thrust out with his new power, Kurosaki blocked the blow with a single hand.

(Aizen lost shortly thereafter.)

With Aizen out of the picture, it's suddenly obvious to the rest of the Gotei that something is strange about the seamless way that Urahara and Kurosaki fight together--no one should be as skilled (or as close) as the two of them after less than a year of acquaintance. Everyone could see the concern in Urahara's eyes when the boy swayed on his feet, the careful way the blonde wrapped his arm around Kurosaki’s shoulders. But only Tousen could see the bond flare and pulse between them every time they touched. He closed his eyes against its brightness.

All too soon, Tousen’s eyes became heavy, and then it was impossible for him to see anything at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to UraIchi Week for inadvertently helping me finish this weirdness. I think it makes sense, but let me know if I’m wrong. Also, check out the next two stories (also kinda weird, also helped by UI Week), if you’d like.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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